Methods of surface modification of polymer materials are well known and include metallization and treatments with gaseous or other substances.
The most frequently used of these methods, i.e. metallization, suffers the following principal drawbacks: poor adhesion between the metal coating and polymer surface; a requirement of both preliminary treatment of the polymer surface and application of additional fixing varnishes or other types of coating; working in a harmful environment composed of chemicals with toxic and cancerogenic action, etc.
Surface modification of polymers by non-metals has not been accomplished up to date.
Current methods of surface modification of polymer materials using gases are based either on heat treatment or electrical discharge, performed in the environment of the respective gases. The main disadvantages of these methods consist of:
(a) difficult and improper control of both the quantity of diffused gas and the properties of thus modified surface, and PA0 (b) poor reproducibility of the process.
A process for the modification of surface properties of semiconductors and metals as well as some organic dielectrics is in current use, which is called "ion implantation", i.e. a process, in which the solid surface is subjected to a bombardment with accelerated ions of given chemical element thereby penetrating it. The process of ion implantation has not been applied to polymeric matters.